The Nations: Music to Be Patriotic By

Oh! see and behold the stars On the waving banner; They are a sign that Samoa Is able to lead. Oh!

— National Anthem of Western Samoa

Two months ago Stuttgart’s Institute of Foreign Relations published its latest revised edition of The National An thems of the World. It was outdated even before it went on sale. So fast are new nations emerging these days that the anthems of Africa’s two newest, Gambia and Zambia, appeared after the anthology had gone to press. At last count there were more than 150 assorted anthems in the world, hailing the glories of every nation from Red China (“Build anew the Great Wall from flesh and blood, arise!”) to tiny Liechtenstein (“Where the chamois freely jumps about”) and Cameroon (“In barbaric times you lived your early days/But bit by bit you now are leaving savage ways”).

No More Moonlight. For some nations, having an anthem at all seems almost as improbable as some of the verses. Many African tribesmen, for example, are unaware that they are members of a nation, much less that they have a song to rise to. Nevertheless, the anthem is something no independent state can do without. Even if national pride did not demand one, international protocol would, and both the British and French, who between them have launched most of the world’s new nations, have seen to it that even such remote places as Upper Volta have something to play. “When independence is clearly on the way,” says a British colonial officer, “it’s usually up to the man on the spot to get them thinking about all the trappings and trimmings.”

A few budding governments have composed their own. Senegal’s anthem (“The red Lion has roared/The Tamer of the Bush has jumped forward”) was written by Poet-President Leopold Senghor, Jamaica’s by the Minister of Industry, the Ivory Coast’s by its Information Minister. Malaysia expropriated an Indonesian love song called Moonlight, changed the words, then banned the original version. Kenya’s solution was to graft the hymnlike words of one proposed anthem (“O God of all creation/Bless this our land and nation”) onto the music of a Pokomo tribal lullaby.

Too Many Tongues. The creation of anthems is particularly difficult in Africa, where skilled composers are rare. Some governments have asked their former colonial masters to write their anthems for them; one Frenchman composed the tunes for two West African states. Seven African anthems have been produced by local priests. Seven nations held anthem contests, with the winners being judged either by governmental decision or popular poll. Two English ladies won the Nigerian contest; and in Malawi, where the winner was a native organist, the government was so delighted with his effort (“Put down each and every enemy/ Hunger, disease, envy”) that it sent him to London to study music.

Lyrics are often the most serious problem. Zambia had no trouble deciding on an ancient African air for its melody, but needed verses which would rhyme in English and in its four major tribal tongues. To help the 250 entrants in its anthem contest remember the tune, the government ordered all Zambia radio stations to play it for three weeks. In Nigeria, where 250 languages are spoken, and in Ghana, where there are 56, the governments gave up and called for lyrics only in English; the anthems of most of former French Africa are written only in French.

Bits & Pieces. Most new African states have passed over their own rich native music to copy the marches and hymns of Europe. “I keep hearing bits and pieces from the Marche Consulaire,” says one French African hand. The Brazzaville Congo’s La Congolaise is vaguely reminiscent of La Marseillaise, and differs from the Debout Congolais of the Leopoldville Congo more in detail than in spirit: “Congolese, arise,” sing the Brazzavillians, whereas Moise Tshombe’s people are called upon to “Arise, Congolese.”

Even so, the new nations are not much worse off than their elders. The Dutch, whose anthem dates back to 1568, still sing their allegiance “to the King of Spain.” At least a dozen nations have had anthems to the tune of God Save the Queen—including Germany during World War I. West Germany now sings only the third verse of what through Hitler’s time was known as Deutschland Uber Alles, and even that was borrowed from Austria. Two East European nations are now revising their own postwar anthems, written to please their Russian masters. Rumania is cutting out the line about the “liberating Soviet people,” and Bulgaria is bent on sinking the “great sun of Lenin and Stalin which lit our way with its rays.”

Remarkably, most new anthems have managed to avoid personal jingoism. Ghana, of course, sings the praises of Kwame Nkrumah, and Tunisia pays tribute to “the spirit of our Habib, the great leader,” but few other new nations have used their songs to glorify current heroes. South Africa’s whites have even resisted, mercifully enough, the temptation to change their lovely anthem to the Verwoerd March.